Jimi Hendrix Recording Electric Lady Land

In the newest episode of the podcast The Relix Audio Hour, we roll the clock back 50 years and take a deep dive into the recording process of Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 opus Electric Ladyland.

Host Jesse Lauter sits down with the record’s engineer/mixer Eddie Kramer as well as Hendrix historian John McDermott to explore the ins and outs of the groundbreaking LP, which would be Hendrix’s crowning recording achievement.

Kramer recalls joining the project in April 1968, and witnessing Hendrix in the throws of the creative process. “It was such a rush of information being thrown at me,” he chuckles.

Courtesy of the Hendrix estate, you can also hear audio of Hendrix himself describing the LP. Much of the episode’s soundtrack comes from the recently released Electric Ladyland deluxe boxset, as well its companion film At Last The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland.

“He was a man who was blessed with god-given talent, amazing talent. But he was able to focus. He had a vision. Once he got on track with a song, and he knew pretty much in his head where it was headed, he wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t let go – it’s like a pit-bull – until he achieved the end goal,” Kramer says of Hendrix.

“He loved Winwood’s playing. I think at one point he asked him, ‘Hey, let’s put a band together. Or at least join my band,’” Kramer posits, adding to the myth of rock and roll’s greatest group that never was.